Fire Them All

I hope "they" all can be fired!

Socialist Monopoly

Where Are We Spending?

A little chart candy for a laid back Saturday. If we want to balance the budget we will need to cut. By looking at this chart one can see how dfficult it will be to cut 40% of our spending as we need to. This chart is from Karl Denninger. I recomend that you read his commentary, or maybe I do not recomend it, it is after all the weekend. 

Calling Evil Good

Coach Paterno "retired" at Penn State due to a serial child molester being a coach at the University's football program. The problem was that Paterno did not follow up to see that the man was arrested, even when he was caught in the act in the school shower with a ten year old. (To be fair to Paterno, he could not have had the man arrested, but he could have shown his concern to the police more agressively.) 

Paterno said this, "with the benefit of hind site, I wish I had done more." What? A man is caught in the shower sodomizing a 10 year old and this is the best he can do? It looks like he is only sorry he got caught. Again to be fair to Paterno he also said this: "This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life." Yet at the same time he seemed surprized that he was forced to "retire." 

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is the Song of the Vineyard in Isaiah 5. Here is the relevent section:

²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good 
   and good evil, 
who put darkness for light 
   and light for darkness, 
who put bitter for sweet 
   and sweet for bitter.

Naturally the students were upset with the coverup  er, well no, they did riot–in support of Coach Paterno. 

How is it that we who believe in the Bible can look at the punishments given to anceint Israel and Judah, but yet think we can do the same things without any consequences? 

2000 or 4000?

My wife had pain in her leg. So she went to the Doctor. His response was,  “Don’t worry about it.” I think the reason he took this attitude was a combination of incompetence and the quite understandable desire to avoid an MRI and the costs associated with it.

We were scheduled to leave for Russia so we could not follow up.

As my wife is also a citizen of Russia, she got an MRI there. It was done on equipment imported from Israel. Her leg was fine. They decided to send her to a specialist. The appointment was a few days later, not a few weeks as in America.

They did an X-Ray and discovered she has a pinched nerve.

Why am I relating this story? It is to bring out the problems with American Medicine. I estimate that the costs if the tests had been done in America at $2000. This may be a little on the high side, as I have never figured out billing in America. It cost 4,000 in Russia. That is rubles. So divide by 30. You do the math.

Our current system cannot continue much longer.  Already medical “vacation clinics” are popping up all over. We do not have the money to continue business as usual. What will replace the current system? Who knows?